Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Gilded Ones

This is a book that has been on many "most anticipated reads of 2021" lists. Fans of fantasy won't be disappointed by this unique, captivating story about a deeply patriarchal society where on their sixteenth birthday, girls are bled to determine whether their blood runs red, signalling them to be pure, or gold, marking them as unpure and thus sentencing them to death. When the main character Deka's blood runs gold, her life is flipped upside down as she's given the choice to remain in her village and submit to her fate or train to become part of a special army to defend the emperor and the kingdom from Deathshrieks, formidable creatures that pose a threat to the land. The book is filled with plenty of action and twists and turns, with an overall underlying message of the strength of women and fighting back against a patriarchal society that is threatened by that strength.

While I thought the concept of this story was pretty interesting and I liked the general themes and ideas, I unfortunately didn't quite enjoy the execution. I thought there were a lot of interesting concepts that could have been explored in more depth or gone in more interesting ways, but instead the story took a slightly predictable turn and the twist/revelation towards the end felt a little rushed and thrown together. This was the author’s debut novel and I actually thought the writing style wasn’t too bad, but I think the characters could have been better developed. The story is told from the main character, Deka's, perspective, but while we're in her head, I felt we didn’t really get much of a sense of her personality, and the other characters pretty much just exist as sidekicks to Deka. Britta was probably my favourite character, but I wish her character was explored a little further and given greater depth than just being devoted to Deka. Also, I found it slightly weird how Britta’s dialogue is written with an accent but literally no other character in the book is written as speaking with an accent, I felt like it threw things off a bit and was a bit distracting. Another issue I had was that there were a lot of info dumps, which is a real pet peeve of mine. As I said, I didn’t really mind the writer’s general writing style, so I wouldn’t necessarily let this put you off as I don’t think it affected the flow of the story necessarily, but I personally don’t like being told things through a monologue rather than it being shown through the characters figuring things out, but that was something I found happened a lot in this book.

There’s also a point to be made about the fact that this is a story about a society divided very strictly by gender but there is no discussion or suggestion of the existence of trans and non-binary people at all. There are a few throwaway lines in a single scene acknowledging a character’s non-heterosexual sexuality but that’s really the extent that this book delves into the realm of LGBTQ+ characters and themes. This was something I found particularly disappointing because I felt like Deka had zero chemistry with her love interest and the whole romance subplot felt beyond forced, whereas it would’ve been much more believable and satisfying if her love interest had been one of the alaki.

Despite all this, I'm hesitant to rate this any less than 3 stars because I acknowledge that I'm probably not the intended audience for this book. I admit I was excited to read it because of all the hype around the book, but really, I'm not much of a fan of fantasy (particularly not YA fantasy), which probably fed into my lack of enjoyment and the criticisms I had. However, I can see fantasy fans really enjoying this story and I really do think that generally, the author did a good job of coming up with such an interesting concept, and I really appreciate the existence of a YA fantasy that’s inspired by African culture and features a large cast of non-White characters. It seems as though this will be a series, so I’d be interested in seeing how the series develops as the author gets used to writing these characters and worlds.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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cuppacora's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There is a reason I have already read this book twice in 2021. It is absolutely excellent, an amazing fantasy.

This book is brutal and harsh and comes with a whole heap of content warnings, but it is utterly brilliant. The character development is exquisite, and the twists in the story are breath-taking. Deka goes through so much, and I love how her relationship with herself and her world changes. I love the challenges to misogyny ad religious bigotry.

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beautifullybookishbethany's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

The Gilded Ones is an ambitious YA debut that verges on dark fantasy as it takes on war, violence, trauma and xenophobia from within a deeply patriarchal, oppressively religious society. This is a book I've been anticipating for a very long time and while it wasn't perfect, it was very, very good.

Deka is awaiting a ritual ceremony that will determine whether her blood is pure. If it runs red, she will become a full-fledged woman and begin covering her face. If it runs gold, she has demon blood and will be subjected to execution or joining the emperors army. (hint: it's not red)

I don't want to say too much about what happens because this is a book that really sucks you in and is quite fast paced. However, you should know that this book contains a great deal of violence and can be quite disturbing at times. Death, torture, dismemberment, sexual assault, war violence, etc. is throughout. (although most of the sexual assault occurs off page, we see a lot of the ptsd that results from it) The world is interesting, the magic is interesting, and there are great characters with strong bonds of sisterhood. It grapples with difficult subjects and explores topics including how children can be drawn into battle, the trauma and coping mechanisms we see in those exposed to such brutality, and the ways that oppressive teachings can enable violence against women and self-hatred. Thematically this is incredibly rich and does not flinch from difficult experiences.

However, I did struggle a bit with the ending. Though to be fair it's got to be tough to really nail the landing in such an ambitious project for a first time author. That said, some of the twists at the end weren't fully explained, nor were all of their ramifications adequately dealt with. Characters accepted things too easily and there weren't enough obstacles before things wrapped up in a relatively tidy bow. I don't want to get more specific than that because of spoilers, but suffice to say that most of this book was SO good, I had very high expectations of what the ending was going to do. And while the ending was fine, it was a bit of a letdown. Otherwise, this probably would have been a favorite of the year. That said, I still think this is well worth your time and Namina Forna is an author to keep an eye on! I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

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lennie_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Gilded Ones is a Black Feminist tour de force that features an oppressive patriarchal religion and the ways in which they control society, all set against a wondrous, inclusive and unique fantasy world.

When I received this ARC in my Fairyloot box back in July I was beyond thrilled. This has been one of my most anticipated releases for 2021 ever since I started my #PromoteBlackAuthors series.

This book follows Deka, a 16 year old due to have her ‘Ceremony’, where she will be cut to expose the colour of her blood. If her blood runs gold, she will be denounced as a demon and executed.
Inevitably, Deka’s blood runs gold causing a chain of events in which even her own family turn on her and she is tortured by people of the Infinite Wisdom (the aforementioned religion).
She is eventually rescued by someone from the capital who is creating an army of Alaki (demons who have gold blood) to defeat the horrific Deathshrieks that plague the world.

This book deals with a lot of heavy subjects and at times I was just seething with anger at the world and the religion in this book. The restrictions on women, and alaki especially, are just horrific.

However, this made me appreciate Deka’s growth so much more. At the beginning of the book, Deka is extremely meek, pious and obedient and it made me want to shake her at times. But her character development is really something to behold.
The world building is fantastic, I loved the descriptions of the Goddesses, the capital, the different provinces (North, South, East & West) and the racial diversity. We did have some queer rep but I would have liked to see a bit more.

Parts of this book also reminded me of the Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs and also Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, take from that what you will, but I think if you’re read all three you’ll see what I mean.

This was such a refreshing Fantasy story with a brilliant array of characters and history and I’m so excited to see where the series will go from here.

CW: rape, torture, death, genocide, religious oppression, war, blood

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